One Philly company makes list of top-growing inner-city firms

When Will Reynolds describes the factors playing into companies’ choice of location, you start to imagine a set of giant pincers.

It would cost Reynolds as much as 40 percent more to rent office space in Center City Philadelphia that he pays to house his search-engine optimization firm, SEER, in Northern Liberties.

On the other hand, expanding to the adjoining floor of an office building poses far fewer logistical challenges than finding large enough spaces in Philadelphia.

His current office, a long-abandoned church, was acquired and refurbished with the help of a solicitous landlord. Now, the company has become the sole Philly representative on a top 100 list of the fastest-growing companies in the country’s inner cities.

“For us, it just fit,” says Reynolds, adding that most of his peers have chosen to locate elsewhere.

“A lot of companies are located either downtown or out in Conshohocken or whatever,” he said,

SEER placed at number 25 on the list compiled by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

Philadelphia had only one entry on the list, compared with a list-topping 12 in Chicago and two in Pittsburgh. KS Engineers in Newark, N.J., also made the list.